MySpacehttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/myspace
en-usSun, 18 Feb 2018 00:25:52 -0500Sun, 18 Feb 2018 00:25:52 -0500The latest news on MySpace from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/a-blogger-exposes-myspaces-bad-security-practices-2017-7Until recently, a hacker could have gotten into your old Myspace account with just three easy-to-find things about you (TIME)http://www.businessinsider.com/a-blogger-exposes-myspaces-bad-security-practices-2017-7
Mon, 17 Jul 2017 18:43:52 -0400Caroline Cakebread
<p><span><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/596d2b4dabc1c819008b5723-1250/screen shot 2017-07-17 at 20351 pm.png" alt="Myspace screenshot" data-mce-source="Caroline Cakebread / Business Insider" />You may not have thought much about your Myspace page in a long time, but you might want to give it some thought now.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>It turns out, there was &mdash; until very recently &mdash; an easy way to hack into Myspace accounts. All you needed was an account holder's name, user name, and date of birth.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span></span><span>British cybersecurity blogger Leigh-Anne Galloway<a href="https://leigh-annegalloway.com/myspace/">&nbsp;published a post</a>&nbsp;on Monday about the security flaw. Her post was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/17/15981708/myspace-account-security-hacking?utm_campaign=theverge&amp;utm_content=chorus&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter">picked up by the Verge</a>,&nbsp;among other outlets.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>Galloway discovered the Myspace vulnerability in April&nbsp;while trying to regain access to her account so she could delete it. The site directed her to an account recovery page. In order to reset her password and allow her to regain control of her account, the page only asked that she provide her full name, user name, email address associated with the account and birth date. </span></p>
<p><span>As Galloway noted, most of that information is either public or fairly easy to find for most people, meaning that if hackers wanted to, they could fairly easily take control of any MySpace account. Galloway&nbsp;was concerned enough about the flaw that she&nbsp;</span><span>notified Myspace soon after she discovered it. She said she never got a response other than an automated email telling her MySpace&nbsp;had gotten the message and would get back to her.</span></p>
<p><span>Galloway later discovered the situation was even worse than she thought. Although the recovery page indicated certain fields were required to reset an account, the page also tells visitors to just "</span>try and fill out as many of the fields as you can." After testing it a bit, she discovered&nbsp;<span>she was able to reset her password and gain access to her account without a valid email address</span></p>
<p><span></span><span>Interestingly, after Galloway published her post on Monday and it was picked&nbsp;up by various news outlets, the recovery page she used disappeared. The site now redirects visitors&nbsp;to a page prompting them&nbsp;to enter an email address to get instructions on how to reset their password. </span></p>
<p>It's unclear whether any Myspace accounts were compromised due to the vulnerability.</p>
<p>In an emailed statement, the company said that because of the recent concerns, it added an additional verification step for customers seeking to reactivate their accounts. Myspace plans to continue refining the process over time, the company said.</p>
<p><span>This isn't the first or even the most serious security issue Myspace has faced. </span><span>In 2016, a hacker stole and then tried to sell 360 million user email addresses and passwords.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>Although it's largely an after-thought in the social networking world these days,&nbsp;Myspace still gets 50 million visits every month according to <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2016/2/11/10970732/time-inc-just-bought-myspace">the Verge</a>. In 2016 media giant Time purchased the social networking company for an undisclosed sum. Then Chairman and CEO of Time, Joe Ripp called the purchase &ldquo;game changing.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Viant, a digital advertising platform, is the parent company of Myspace, and Time was likely looking to get in on Viant&rsquo;s user data for ad targeting purposes.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-tom-instagram-photos-2015-9" >The multimillionaire founder of MySpace now travels the world taking jaw-dropping photographs</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-blogger-exposes-myspaces-bad-security-practices-2017-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-explains-how-facebook-social-media-photos-can-be-used-against-you-in-court-2017-5">A judge explains how Facebook can be used against you in court</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-founder-tom-anderson-traveling-photos-2017-6The multi-millionaire founder of MySpace retired before he was 40 to travel the world — here are some of his most stunning photoshttp://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-founder-tom-anderson-traveling-photos-2017-6
Wed, 07 Jun 2017 15:47:47 -0400Tanza Loudenback
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/593716c9b1bd5657008b469c-2338/oahuheli.jpg" alt="Tom Anderson Oahu" data-mce-source="Courtesy of Tom Anderson"></p><p>If you were a teenager with a computer in the early aughts, there's a good chance you had a profile on MySpace, the music-centered predecessor to Facebook.</p>
<p>Nearly <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-06-22/the-rise-and-inglorious-fall-of-myspace">76 million people used</a> the social networking site in the US at the height of its popularity in 2008, and they all had one thing in common: first "friend" Tom Anderson.</p>
<p>Anderson cofounded MySpace in August 2003 at just 32 years old, serving as the company's president. His now-iconic profile would default to every new user's friend list; his persona and the company <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/17/14647596/tom-from-myspace-profile-picture-twitter-instagram">became ubiquitous.</a></p>
<p>In 2005, News Corp. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/18/business/news-corp-to-acquire-owner-of-myspacecom.html?_r=0">bought MySpace</a> — then the largest social network in the world — and its parent company, Intermix, for $580 million. Anderson retired as a multi-millionaire in 2009, leaving MySpace behind to explore a passion for architecture and design.</p>
<p>"When I left the work world, I started designing my dream house," <a href="https://www.redbulletin.com/int/en/lifestyle/this-is-what-myspace-tom-is-doing-these-days">he recently told the Red Bulletin</a>. "I dived into architecture and bought seven vacant lots. My plan was to build one house, move in, and build the next. If the next was better, I'd move in and sell the previous one – so on and so forth."</p>
<p>Anderson only finished construction on the third home before an interest in photography took over. Since then, he's been traveling all over the world, moving between his three homes in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Hawaii to photograph landscapes and nature. He posts the best shots to his Instagram account, aptly named <a href="https://www.instagram.com/myspacetom/">@myspacetom</a>.</p>
<p>Business Insider recently caught up with Anderson to learn more about his travels, how he defines retirement, and his advice for aspiring travelers.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-30-year-old-saved-10000-in-rent-airbnb-hopping-around-the-world-2017-5" >A 30-year-old saved $10,000 in rent when she left Los Angeles to Airbnb-hop around the world</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-super-saver-shares-7-best-tips-for-traveling-on-a-budget-2017-5" >A 27-year-old who saves 65% of his income shares his 7 best tips for traveling on a budget</a></strong></p>
<h3>When Anderson left MySpace, he was serious about retirement. "For years it literally meant no work — I just didn't want to spend one minute doing something for money," he told Business Insider.</h3>
<p><biembeddedobject id="741f7266-713e-4480-963f-ede6fcbf73b6" style="width: 800px; height: autopx;" class="instagram mceNonEditable">Instagram Embed:<br />http://instagram.com/p/BTnffyLFv8r/embed/<br />Width: 800px</biembeddedobject>
<p><em>&nbsp;Kauai.</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>When he picked up photography in 2011 after an inspired trip to Burning Man, Anderson decided to maintain it as a hobby. "I haven't wanted to take commissions or sell my photos, or do anything commercial with it — that would just feel like work, which I don't want to do," he said.</h3>
<p><biembeddedobject id="4cd5f75f-90fb-402f-b4f0-3ee98c69ec87" style="width: 800px; height: autopx;" class="instagram mceNonEditable">Instagram Embed:<br />http://instagram.com/p/BSxc7OwF2_b/embed/<br />Width: 800px</biembeddedobject>
<p><em>&nbsp;Bagan, Burma.</em></p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Instead, he travels for pleasure and to visit friends, choosing destinations mainly by thumbing through photos online. "Instagram has really changed the travel industry," he said.</h3>
<p><biembeddedobject id="8845245e-42d0-4bc5-ab62-ff1eedc32781" style="width: 800px; height: autopx;" class="instagram mceNonEditable">Instagram Embed:<br />http://instagram.com/p/BPt31jID7N_/embed/<br />Width: 800px</biembeddedobject>
<p><em>&nbsp;Zion National Park in Utah.</em></p></p>
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-founder-tom-anderson-traveling-photos-2017-6#/#people-see-a-photo-on-instagram-and-decide-to-go-its-that-simple-tourism-has-skyrocketed-in-photogenic-places-because-of-instagram-anderson-said-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/women-in-tech-myspace-2016-12Here's why some women in tech cite MySpace as their entry pointhttp://www.businessinsider.com/women-in-tech-myspace-2016-12
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 10:35:25 -0500Lori Janjigian
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/56d6fe2a8d3eaeee3c7b23c6-865/woman-on-laptop-40.jpg" alt="woman on laptop" data-mce-source="Shutterstock" /></p><p>If you had a MySpace profile back in 2006, you know that customizing it was key. Having a unique background, profile picture and song choice was important.&nbsp;</p>
<p>But in order to really stand out, you needed to be able to do more than change the color of your profile. To do anything more advanced, it helped to know HTML and CSS.&nbsp;</p>
<p>For many teenage girls, MySpace provided an entry point into technology, <a href="http://latinousa.org/episode/tech-industrys-leaky-pipeline/">NPR's Latinos USA reported</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Latinos USA reporter Antonia Cereijido <span>joined the Slack channel Techqueria, a large group message for Latinos in technology. She asked the women in the group what sparked their interest in technology and found, "a surprising number of women said MySpace."</span></p>
<p><span>While she didn't mention the exact number of women who responded, she was able to interview one on her podcast.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5863d838ee14b637588b5083-505/138568image1.png" alt="MySpace Edit Page" data-mce-source="Screenshot" />One female student, who is hoping to be a user experience designer in Silicon Valley, <a href="http://latinousa.org/episode/tech-industrys-leaky-pipeline/">mentioned</a><span><a href="http://latinousa.org/episode/tech-industrys-leaky-pipeline/"> in the interview</a>, "I started to see a lot of the HTML and CSS that I had learned before and then from there I started picking up JavaScript. It gave me a lot more confidence in being about to pick up coding."</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Today, teenage girls are exposed to technology much more than they were a decade ago, when MySpace reigned. However, with so many advancements in technology and website design, teens can update and customize their profiles without ever needing to write a single line of code.&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p>Probably without even knowing it, by forcing teens to code their own designs, MySpace was inspiring some of the future coders of America.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-headquarters-photos-2016-12" >A tour of Microsoft's massive, sprawling headquarters</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/women-in-tech-myspace-2016-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pretending-live-on-mars-nasa-research-experiment-2018-1">What it's like to pretend to live on Mars for 8 months</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-to-early-2000s-websites-2016-10These websites defined the early 2000s — here's where they are nowhttp://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-to-early-2000s-websites-2016-10
Wed, 05 Oct 2016 12:13:00 -0400Clinton Nguyen
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/57f4127457540c22128b494a-838/screen shot 2016-10-04 at 16.33.55.png" alt="msn" data-mce-source="MSN.com/Screenshot" data-mce-caption="MSN.com, the homepage that graced many Windows XP screens in the mid-2000's." /></p><p></p>
<p>Much of the internet in the early 2000s was&nbsp;defined by websites that ushered people into a new age of social media and online entertainment.</p>
<p>Take Friendster for example &mdash; the&nbsp;massively popular site&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/business/yourmoney/15friend.html?_r=1">became a household name</a> before MySpace, and then Facebook overtook&nbsp;both of them&nbsp;as the most popular social network.</p>
<p>Friendster is no longer in service,&nbsp;but&nbsp;plenty of the sites that defined the early 2000s are still around, albeit in somewhat different forms.</p>
<p>Here's what they're doing now.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/13-classic-games-you-can-play-in-your-web-browser-2016-2" >13 classic video games you can play right now in your web browser</a></strong></p>
<h3>MySpace</h3>
<img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/57f3f91a9bd978e7018b49e8-400-300/myspace.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><a href="https://myspace.com/" target="_blank">MySpace</a> was massively popular in the mid-2000s&nbsp;as a social media competitor to&nbsp;Friendster, before Facebook came out.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Like Facebook, each user&nbsp;had their own wall, where strangers and friends could post comments. The draw was customization &mdash; every user could decorate their page and post their own music and blog posts on the site.&nbsp;</p>
<p>MySpace has&nbsp;completely changed since then. The company <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-ceo-tim-vanderhook-interview-2015-9">rebranded and relaunched in 2013</a>, with an emphasis on hitting catering to musicians and record&nbsp;labels.</p>
<p>The site has&nbsp;its own app, which&nbsp;allows users to curate playlists that they can listen to via a player on the bottom of the screen. Unlike Facebook, users make "connections," not friends, and radio stations and music videos are given the spotlight on the site.</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Match.com</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57f4001f57540c99208b472f-400-300/matchcom.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><a href="http://www.match.com/cpx/en-us/match/IndexPage/" target="_blank">Match.com</a> was one of the first dating sites in the world, launched in 1995. Much of the site's features&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;a personal&nbsp;dating profile, the use of big data to narrow down potential partners, and the ability to message with potential partners &mdash; have been&nbsp;replicated by&nbsp;competitors in years since.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Today, Match.com still has many&nbsp;of the same features. Not much has changed other than the design, which was updated to be more&nbsp;mobile responsive&nbsp;and feature more photos.&nbsp;The service and some&nbsp;of its basic features are&nbsp;mostly free, but&nbsp;users can also opt for a paid membership to make their profiles stand out or send each other messages.</p>
<p>When registering, users are still asked to go through over a dozen pages of&nbsp;questions &mdash; about their desired physical attributes, interests, and ideal salary ranges &mdash; to narrow down the pool of potential suitors.&nbsp;</p>
<p>While those pages are skippable, Match.com's setup process&nbsp;is&nbsp;much less accessible than that of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.okcupid.com/" target="_blank">OkCupid</a>, where assembling a basic profile only takes just&nbsp;five minutes and only requires&nbsp;three questions (which you can also skip). <a href="https://www.gotinder.com/" target="_blank">Tinder</a>'s registration process is even easier, since it only&nbsp;involves a Facebook login. Both those services offer free messaging, a significant advantage&nbsp;over Match.com.</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>LiveJournal</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57f3fe6d57540ca9018b4a69-400-300/livejournal.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>LiveJournal was a haven for adolescent blogging in the late 2000s. The site became popular for having both personal blogs (which could be private or public) and "communities" where&nbsp;users could congregate to discuss&nbsp;their fandoms and pop culture obsessions.</p>
<p>Today, the site&nbsp;retains much of the same look,&nbsp;including its&nbsp;popular discussion&nbsp;sections and blog layout.&nbsp;The front page now has a spots&nbsp;for promoted posts, which users can purchase by buying&nbsp;tokens with real money. Most&nbsp;of those spots are now occupied by gossip blogs, <a href="http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/">like ohnotheydidnt</a>.</p></p>
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-to-early-2000s-websites-2016-10#/#xanga-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/time-inc-ceo-joe-ripp-cannes-interview-myspace-viant-website-music-valuations-2016-6Time Inc. CEO: 'I hadn't even gone to the MySpace website before we bought the company' — 'but it's a pretty good website' (TIME)http://www.businessinsider.com/time-inc-ceo-joe-ripp-cannes-interview-myspace-viant-website-music-valuations-2016-6
Wed, 29 Jun 2016 08:04:05 -0400Lara O'Reilly
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/576933e752bcd01b008ca9a1-2400/joseph%20ripp.jpg" alt="joseph ripp" data-mce-source="Time Inc." data-mce-caption="Time Inc. CEO Joseph Ripp described the acquisition of Viant as &amp;quotgame changing.&amp;quot"></p><p>When the 94-year-old magazine company Time Inc. acquired the ad-tech firm Viant in February, all anybody could talk about was that <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/myspace-owner-viant-ceo-tim-vanderhook-on-sale-to-time-inc-2016-2?r=US&amp;IR=T">MySpace — which Viant bought back in 2011 — was back in the headlines</a>.</p>
<p>"There were a lot of chuckles about that," Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp joked last week, speaking with Business Insider at the Cannes Lions advertising festival.</p>
<p>He added: "Quite frankly, I hadn't even gone to the MySpace website before we bought the company, but after going there, it's a pretty good website, and music is pretty interesting."</p>
<p>Time Inc., which owns more than 90 media brands including Time magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune, wasn't buying MySpace to resurrect the social network. It was all about the data assets.</p>
<p>Ripp said: "The whole point of MySpace is it gave you permission to reach 1.2 billion people. You combine that with the permissions Time Inc. has from its audiences: We reach 250 million adults in the US. We basically reach 80% of the adults anyone is trying to reach with the permissions that we have to reach them and track them and follow them, so MySpace has really been all about permissions."</p>
<p>That said, Ripp thinks there is a gap for music content online.</p>
<p>"We need to look at it," Ripp said. "I don't have a plan for it yet. I've been focusing mostly on the integration of Viant. I've been focusing on mostly what to do with the data out of Xumo," the Viant and Panasonic-owned over-the-top TV video platform that collects data from 13 million smart TVs, "and the TV targeting data that comes from television, and the third conversation will be what to do about MySpace."</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56bccc226e97c622048b6a99-2060/gettyimages-170435767.jpg" alt="chris vanderhook tim vanderhook" data-mce-source="Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Chris Vanderhook and Tim Vanderhook"></p>
<p>Ripp said the integration of Viant had been "excellent" and had moved Time Inc.'s sell to advertisers to sound very much like Facebook's: "people-based targeting," which was decked all around Time Inc.'s stand on the beach at Cannes. Ripp said only Facebook, Google, and now Time Inc. could make that kind of claim — but even Facebook and Google don't have the TV data.</p>
<p>When Viant founders Tim and Chris Vanderhook were at Viant, Ripp said, "they couldn't get to the CEO of a major beauty company."</p>
<p>"When they are part of Time Inc., they can," he continued. "We have been able to take their message to many more senior people. Time Inc. is given the data quality credibility, the program capability in ways that they, they were very successful before, but now they are more successful."</p>
<p>How successful? Ripp didn't provide numbers and wouldn't confirm how much Time Inc. paid for Viant, but he said: "Viant is actually a very good deal. We got buy-in at a very attractive price, and it is now, with us, growing much faster than even they thought it would. It was very attractive, and our investors are really starting to recognize that."</p>
<h2>Time Inc. 'the magazine company' was a 'destructive definition'</h2>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5773b22288e4a71a008b4c88-1056" alt="joe ripp" data-mce-source="Time Inc." data-mce-caption="Joe Ripp was speaking to Business Insider at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity">Acquisitions like Viant are helping Time Inc. shake off its dusty magazine-publisher image.</p>
<p>Ripp said: "In the past, Time Inc. had limited the size and scale of its audiences because we were defined as 'the magazine company,' and that in part was a very destructive definition because it limited ourselves primarily to print. By thinking of ourselves as a content company, we now distribute on social, on video, on digital — our digital audience is up 83% in the last two years — and it's because we redefined ourselves by not only focusing on print. Print is still very effective, we now know it's very effective as an advertising vehicle. It's still an important part of our business, but it doesn't mean we have to ignore all these other parts. It's not one or the other."</p>
<p>Time Inc. reported a <a href="https://invest.timeinc.com/invest/financials/financial-press-releases/press-release-details/2016/time-inc-grew-video-mobile-and-programmatic-revenues-strongly-in-q4-and-2015/default.aspx">5.4% decline in annual revenue to $3.1 billion in 2015</a>. Print and "other" advertising revenues decreased 10% from the prior year to $1.32 billion. Digital advertising revenue rose 11% year-on-year to $331 million.</p>
<p>One simple way Time Inc. is becoming more of a digital business is by encouraging its reporters to take a film crew with them or use their iPhones to shoot video every time they are meeting someone interesting.</p>
<p>A fun example: When Time magazine shot its cover of Donald Trump sitting in his office with a bald eagle, it also published the now-famous outtake video, showing the bird flapping around the room and attacking the presidential candidate.</p>
<p><div>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/M41aZX5ijVM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></p>
<p>Ripp said: "That video was hilarious, and in the past it never would have been displayed anywhere. It would have been something that just the people who went to the shoot saw. So what I've said to people is: Really engage with celebrities at that special moment, engage with politicians, thought leaders, constantly engage with them, just take a video of it, because that's very compelling content that most people don't have access to."</p>
<p>Time Inc. published around 40,000 videos this year and has created new mobile ad units that are "much more engaging and a lot more fun," in a bid to break away from the "annoying" ads that consumers are increasingly blocking.</p>
<h2>No material negative impact from ad blocking so far</h2>
<p>Ripp said Time Inc. hadn't seen a negative impact from ad blocking so far but that it was using technology to detect how much of its audience uses ad blockers. Time Inc.'s ad-blocking rates are lower than those Ripp has read about, he said, which he assumed might be due to the quality of its content and the slightly older age of some of its audience.</p>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/56fe96b052bcd066018ba38f-1019/screen%20shot%202016-04-01%20at%204.41.04%20pm.png" alt="ad blocking" data-mce-source="comScore"></p>
<p>The company is experimenting with its response to the ad blockers, sometimes blocking access to content for people with ad blockers switched on while other times simply asking ad-blocker users to switch them off.</p>
<p>Ripp said: "The reality is that quality content costs money. We spend over half a billion dollars a year creating content, so we need to find a monetization strategy for that. If ad blocking becomes so extensive that we can no longer make money on the content that's being published for free online, we simply won’t publish content for free online, and the rest of the world will watch '5 Ways To Feed Your Gerbil' and we'll see how that works out."</p>
<blockquote class="pullquote float_right">If ad blocking becomes so extensive that we can no longer make money on the content that's being published for free online, we simply won’t publish content for free online, and the rest of the world will watch '5 Ways To Feed Your Gerbil,' and we'll see how that works out.</blockquote>
<p><span>We asked Ripp whether — given worries such as ad blocking, ad fraud, and measurement discrepancies — there might be a correction in the print advertising market and that dollars from digital might end up flowing back to magazines.</span></p>
<p>He thinks advertisers have to start questioning their media mix. <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/average-tenure-among-chief-marketing-officers-slips-1456958118">The average tenure of a chief marketing officer is just 44 months, according to the executive search consultancy Spencer Stuart</a>, which Ripp said was due to marketers chasing "big shiny objects."</p>
<p>Ripp, who was the vice chairman of AOL in the early 2000s and the CFO of Time Warner in the late 1990s, said:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"They've been chasing these things that generate huge traffic, huge buzz around the next big thing, and then we find out it doesn't work, it doesn't engage, it doesn't convey messages, it doesn't absorb, and it's not absorbed because it's just an annoying thing on the side of the screen ... I left the industry for 14 years and I came back to it, and I think the industry forgot branding. It forgot a lot of the top of the funnel.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"You know, you don't always buy a car because you saw an ad for BMW. It doesn't work that way — there's branding that goes on for years and years before you make those choices. I think, all too often, advertising is being thrown in a direct response box — and not all advertising is direct response. I think advertising is now starting to realize that, and it's starting to get all the detail and realizing that brands have been losing their value."</p>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/54875fa56da811614dde3e71-1200/timeinc-7281.jpg" alt="Joseph A. Ripp" data-mce-source="Michael Seto/Business Insider"></p>
<h2>There are some 'ridiculous' valuations out there</h2>
<p>An area in which Ripp actually wants to see a decrease in value is the valuation of internet businesses, some of which he believes are at "ridiculous" multiples of revenue, having "never made a nickel."</p>
<p>Ripp said: "I remember when I first came back, I had a woman in my office. She had $17 million of revenue and she had been at it for seven years, $2 million of losses, and she told me she wouldn't go for less than $200 million for her company. I laughed at her. I said: 'Well you need to find the person who's willing to do that because you haven't found that here.' That makes no sense to me, but that's how people think. There are these values out there that are just insane. I was a CFO, I know what value is, and I know how to calculate it."</p>
<p>As for the types of companies Ripp does think might add value to Time Inc., he said he was interested in native content products and more ad tech.</p>
<p>"The good news is, when I first started out two years ago, anything that had the word 'digital' on it was ridiculously overpriced," Ripp said. "People are now coming to realize that you do actually need to make money one day and that losing money for your entire career as a business isn't actually a way to generate value."</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/time-inc-ceo-joe-ripp-cannes-interview-myspace-viant-website-music-valuations-2016-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-explains-spacex-falcon-heavy-central-core-crash-landing-2018-2">Elon Musk explains the one thing that went wrong with SpaceX's Falcon Heavy flight</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/stunning-33-million-venice-home-2016-6Look inside a Myspace cofounder's $3.3 million Venice padhttp://www.businessinsider.com/stunning-33-million-venice-home-2016-6
Fri, 24 Jun 2016 09:08:00 -0400Emma Rechenberg
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/576af2fa9105841c008cadc4-1776/14anchorage3.jpg" alt="14Anchorage3" data-mce-source="Halton Pardee + Partners" data-link="http://haltonpardee.com/property/14-anchorage-st-marina-del-rey-ca-90292/" /></p><p>Myspace cofounder Aber Whitcomb is selling his modern home in Venice, California, the Los Angeles Times <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/hot-property/la-fi-hotprop-aber-whitcomb-venice-house-20160617-snap-story.html">reported</a>. He's asking $3.3 million for the home, which is a mix of contemporary and classic styles. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Amenities include a rooftop deck complete with a built-in bar, wine fridge and lounge area &mdash; perfect&nbsp;for entertaining your top eight friends.</p>
<p>Kerry Ann Sullivan and Tami Pardee of&nbsp;<span>Halton Pardee and Partners <a href="http://haltonpardee.com/property/14-anchorage-st-marina-del-rey-ca-90292/">have the listing</a>.</span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/san-franciscos-new-most-expensive-home-2016-6" >Go inside the most expensive home in San Francisco, on the market for $28.5 million</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>DON'T FORGET:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/Businessinsider.Life" >Follow Business Insider's Lifestyle page on Facebook!</a></strong></p>
<h3>The modern exterior has plenty of windows for letting in the California sun.</h3>
<img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/576af0a291058426008cae6d-400-300/the-modern-exterior-has-plenty-of-windows-for-letting-in-the-california-sun.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><h3>At 1,839 square feet, the home feels open and airy.</h3>
<img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/576af0c99105844d018caf4e-400-300/at-1839-square-feet-the-home-feels-open-and-airy.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><h3>Unwind near one of the home's two fireplaces.</h3>
<img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/576af37091058427008cae2c-400-300/unwind-near-one-of-the-homes-two-fireplaces.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stunning-33-million-venice-home-2016-6#/#step-outside-onto-your-own-private-patio-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-netflix-password-change-2016-6You may need to change your Facebook or Netflix password — but not because they were hacked (FB, NFLX)http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-netflix-password-change-2016-6
Wed, 08 Jun 2016 15:13:00 -0400Paul Szoldra
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/575859a4dd0895da5b8b4b31-959/rtxy8ce.jpg" alt="Mark Zuckerberg" data-mce-source="Robert Galbraith/Reuters" data-link="http://pictures.reuters.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C0BXZY5CKS7L&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1920&amp;RH=843#/SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C0BXZY5CKS7L&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1920&amp;RH=843&amp;PN=4&amp;POPUPPN=196&amp;POPUPIID=2C0BF1N6HCM6" /></p><p>You may need to change your password on Facebook or Netflix, but it's not because those two services suffered a breach.</p>
<p>Instead, <a href="http://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/06/password-re-user-get-to-get-busy/">due to recent data dumps of old breaches</a> of usernames and passwords from MySpace, LinkedIn, and Tumblr, the services are proactively telling some users to change their passwords just in case.</p>
<p>The reason: Affected users&nbsp;likely used the same password that was found in the breaches of the other sites, a common problem that hackers can exploit to their advantage.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"We believe that your Netflix account credentials may have been included in a recent release of email addresses and passwords from an older breach at another company," Netflix emailed some users recently. "Just to be safe, we've reset your password as a precautionary measure."</p>
<p>According <a href="http://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/06/password-re-user-get-to-get-busy/">to journalist</a> Brian Krebs, both Netflix and Facebook analyze major data breaches and cross-check them with their own databases. If they find password reuse (as was the case here), they might proactively reset passwords for the users.</p>
<p>Cybersecurity professionals strongly recommend using different passwords for different services. That's because hackers can hack one account, for example, before moving on to compromise more services. It's generally a drag to try and remember a ton of different passwords, so it's best to use a <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/password-management-2016-6">password management app to generate</a> and remember them instead.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-twitter-pinterest-accounts-hacked-linkedin-hack-facebook-passwords-2016-6" >Mark Zuckerberg's social-media accounts got hacked, and his password is terrible</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-netflix-password-change-2016-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/redteam-hackers-power-grid-company-2016-4">Hackers showed us how to break into the power grid — and it was shockingly easy</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-owner-viant-ceo-tim-vanderhook-on-sale-to-time-inc-2016-2The CEO of Myspace tells us why he just sold the company to Time Inc. (TIME)http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-owner-viant-ceo-tim-vanderhook-on-sale-to-time-inc-2016-2
Thu, 11 Feb 2016 13:20:09 -0500Lara O'Reilly
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56bcbfca6e97c62e008b6ad5-952-714/programatic-8295.jpg" alt="Tim Vanderhook" data-mce-source="Michael Seto/Business Insider"></p><p>Myspace surprisingly popped back into the tech headlines again on Thursday when <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/time-inc-acquires-myspace-viant-2016-2">Time Inc. announced it is acquiring the social network's parent company Viant.</a></p>
<p>Viant is a big ad tech player, founded by brothers Chris and Tim Vanderhook. Viant also owns the Specific Media ad network and an "Advertising Cloud" that connects with a database of more than 1 billion registered users.</p>
<p>We caught up with Viant cofounder and CEO Tim Vanderhook over the phone shortly after the deal was announced.</p>
<p>He explained why Viant chose to sell to a magazine company, how Myspace is about to be revitalized through the distribution of Time Inc. content, and why the doomsayers on the ad tech sector have got it wrong because more "traditional" media players — TV, magazine, and radio companies — are about to flood into the ad tech space.</p>
<p><strong>Business Insider: How did the deal come about?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Tim Vanderhook:</strong> Viant was out raising money. We started raising money the end of Q1 last year, Q2 I would say, and we started looking at what we need in our business to continue to grow. What we still need to address the weaknesses of our business in the marketplace. </p>
<p>As we went through that process, we were talking to a number of private equity groups, but then we started to shift our focus. Money is fine and there's lots of private equity groups with available capital, but really what we needed was a strategic that we could pair up with.</p>
<p>We always felt like we had better data than anyone else, this incredible first-party dataset. We had great programmatic technology in an ad tech stack that's end-to-end that's been built over a decade and modified to be for people-based data. But one of the big things we saw that we were missing was quality content, or premium content.</p>
<p><img class="float_left" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56bcc91e6e97c621048b6a95-2832-4256/joseph%20ripp.jpg" alt="joseph ripp" data-mce-source="Time Inc." data-mce-caption="Time Inc. CEO Joseph Ripp described the acquisition of Viant as &amp;quotgame changing.&amp;quot">Being able to leverage this data now in such a high-quality environment of the 60 digital properties Time Inc. has that reach in the US over 120 million people every single month. Being able to take this first-party dataset and marry that with a premium content environment, we saw as a game-changing opportunity.</p>
<p>We engaged with Time Inc. about six months ago when we had our first discussions with them and they were looking for a partner that could activate their first-party data that they have and were looking for a platform that they could get behind to really target ads in the same way that Facebook and Google are using registration data. They have the dataset, but they didn't have the technology platform to be able to activate against it. We had our own dataset and the technology platform, but we're missing the quality premium content on where the ads show up on exchanges that are out there today.</p>
<p>It really was an incredible win-win from us being able to use to combine Time Inc.'s data set with Viant's dataset, we now have the size, scale, and accuracy that Google and Facebook have from a first-party data perspective. But we have married that with high-quality content that is being produced on a daily basis across the incredible brands that Time Inc. has. We think the combination of data and premium content really raises the bar on the whole ecosystem and changes the entire landscape compared to third-party cookies, or anonymous segment cookie data that you're targeting in an open exchange that has very low viewability.</p>
<p>We think this is what the industry needs. Time Inc. was excited about it and so are we.</p>
<p><strong>BI: That said, you did have a content platform already by way of Myspace. You were and still are a media owner. If the private equity money was there, why did you choose to sell to a media owner rather than take on more cash and build a premium content destination yourself through Myspace?</strong></p>
<p><strong>TV:</strong> Myspace is an incredible amount of first-party data where you have user accounts, and users are uploading photos and sharing them, and we manage 15 billion photos for 1 billion users online, people have written blogs in the early days of Myspace that we still host and manage, young and aspiring artists are uploading audio on a daily basis to Myspace as a platform to reach consumers, and video too.</p>
<p>Myspace is different. When I say premium content I'm really talking about storytelling, high-quality editorial that's representative of Time Inc. Myspace is a great publishing platform, it has incredible potential to distribute content across its network and in the social graph that exists across there</p>
<p>One way we've talked about historically is leveraging the email addresses that we have at Myspace and being to re-active and re-touch with consumers. But the key when you do that is having quality content that a consumer wants to read. And by being able to plug in Time Inc.'s content into Myspace as well and start pushing it through, we see synergies.</p>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/56bcc9912e5265ba008b69dd-1874-915/screen%20shot%202016-02-11%20at%205.48.09%20pm.png" alt="MySpace" data-mce-source="MySpace" data-mce-caption="The acquisition will see MySpace distributing Time Inc. content.">But Time Inc. is a whole different level of quality content that I think everyone recognizes, this is an iconic company with iconic brands that have been critical in US history. So being able to leverage Myspace's distribution capability and marry that with the content production capabilities that Time Inc. has, and being able to match marketers' messages using first-party data really is game-changing and we're exciting to deliver on it.</p>
<p><strong>BI: So in summary: Why try and take on money and hire in lots of journalists in order to build a media brand yourself, when there are 94-years of legacy and trust in Time's brands?</strong></p>
<p><strong>TV:</strong> That's right. I mean, look, the reality is we said we need to move from a pure-play ad tech company. We've got to have a direct relationship with consumers. It's the only way to generate first-party data and have that dataset — have a real property and real consumers that engage with you.</p>
<p>When the Myspace acquisition came around: You can't replicate Myspace. Can someone replicate or an invent an app in the world that reaches 1 billion users? Certainly it's in the realms of possibility but a very low probability. You also simultaneously can't just invent another Time Inc. The level of quality content, the amount they produce, the brand that they have and the consumer awareness that they have over a 94-year history can't be replicated and that's why I say Time Inc. is in a league of its own when it comes to quality content and everyone recognizes that.</p>
<p><strong>BI: What happens with yourself, Chris [Vanderhook, Tim's brother and Viant cofounder and COO] and the Viant properties? Do those continue on autonomously? Do you continue on autonomously? Or are you becoming part of Time and some of these properties might be rebranded?</strong></p>
<p><strong><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/56bcca502e526553008b6a7c-2057-1029/gettyimages-170435767.jpg" alt="chris vanderhook tim vanderhook" data-mce-source="Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Chris Vanderhook and Tim Vanderhook">TV:</strong> No, not at all. We are a 100% independent company. We are run by our own board of directors. Chris and I wouldn't have done this deal if we were going to sail off into the sunset. We are incredibly excited and passionate about the opportunity of putting Time Inc. and Viant together, so we will remain as CEO and COO of Viant</p>
<p>What the announcement means today is that our product just got simply better. If you loved the dataset that Viant Inc. was offering last year through the Ad Cloud, you're going to be even more excited now we're able to pull Time Inc's 60 properties and all of the subscriber data they have as well too. That is a huge boost and a shot in the arm for Viant in being able to grow our database to rival that of Facebook and Google. That's one area we're really excited about.</p>
<p>The second area is really being able to look at the premium content opportunities and being able to marry it up with that dataset. That is something that, when we deliver it into the marketplace, people are going to recognize this really was a game-changing day when Time Inc. made this decision to get behind Viant and really contribute significantly to the strength of the assets they have. It makes them a huge player in digital advertising and I think it's really going to change the way people look at Time Inc. and look at Viant.</p>
<p>To directly answer your question: We're not going anywhere. We're not Time Inc. employees. We are employees of Viant, which is a subsidiary of Time Inc. — I don't know, maybe I'll have to sign a Time Inc. employment agreement, I'm not sure how that works. But we have no intention of going anywhere and we report to a board of directors. Our board changes out a bit more now with Time Inc. doing this transaction.</p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/56bccbdd6e97c623048b6b0b-1860-539/screen%20shot%202016-02-11%20at%205.57.37%20pm.png" alt="Time Inc." data-mce-source="Time Inc." data-mce-caption="Time Inc.'s brands range from Fortune to Horse &amp; Hound."></p>
<p><strong>BI: Can I ask more about the transaction itself? Was it an all-cash deal? What were the terms? </strong></p>
<p><strong>TV:</strong> Unfortunately, since Time Inc. is public company, I have to defer everything around the transaction to what they've chosen and they've chosen to not disclose any of the terms of that transaction. Any of the terms would have to run by them due to the public nature of that company.</p>
<p><strong>BI: What do you think this transaction says about the ad tech market in 2016? Lots has been written by the doomsayers when you look at the majority of public ad tech stocks, and there haven't been many big exits for quite some time. Do you think this deal will help people look on the ad tech market in a different light, or do you think actually this isn't reflective of the market at all?</strong></p>
<p><strong>TV:</strong> I would say there's a couple of issues in the ad tech ecosystem in general. I think the majority of the ad tech community when you read the trades, and look at the positioning of companies, and the products, and the technology positioning, there has been a huge investment in laying the pipes and the plumbing in what you see.</p>
<p>Really what most companies bet on is that value creation will happen through pipes and plumbing. I think what you're seeing is that pipes and plumbing means a commodity and it's not really about pipes and plumbing — those are important — but when you have hundreds of companies that have laid the same pipes and the same plumbing that feed into exchanges, you have a commodity situation.</p>
<p>The value-creator in ad tech is not around the pipes and plumbing, it's around data and content. When you take first-party data, that's the highest-value data set. If you use third-party data, it's better than not having any, but it doesn't equal first-party data. I think Facebook and Google's revenue can clearly be attributed to first-party data.</p>
<p><div>
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<p class="embed-spacer">I know our success in 2015, we went from 0% of our revenue being people-based revenue — it now represents 40% of our revenue in just 12 months. Marketers are flocking towards first-party data, there's a general desire and need to really leverage that. </p>
<p>I think beyond just data, though, you need even more, which is why we went with Time Inc. I think more ad tech entrepreneurs and companies out there today will start to recognize you really do need a partner. You can't just be an ad tech company, you've either got to be a publisher, you have to have a deep and diverse relationship with consumers, with advertisers, with data providers, all kinds of different companies that are out there. It's tough for one company to do that.</p>
<p>Everyone's grappling with low quality, so you're hearing a lot of talk about deal IDs and private marketplace transactions coming. What that means is it's a flight back to quality. Open ad exchanges are riddled with low quality and it's pushing marketers back to premium content. But they're not going to just go back to content without data. They still want the data, the targeting, the measurement system that the ad tech community has created. They just want their ads to show up in a high-quality environment they can trust.</p>
<p>And that's really what this transaction means. First-party data, high-quality premium content, and advertisers still get the benefit of everything from a data perspective but get that safety and security from 60 trusted brands from Time Inc. Of course we'll still remain independent and work with other publishers but Time Inc. is contributing its data and content to Viant to strengthen our positioning in the marketplace. That will attract more data providers, more high quality content providers to Viant and that's going to create a great place to transact.</p>
<p><strong>BI: Something some marketers and agencies do worry about is this idea of walled gardens — particularly Facebook and Google, they are the media owner but they also own all sides of the ad transaction. This is where you're moving towards, it's where Verizon is moving towards. Do you think these are, ultimately, the players that are going to win? Those that own every part of the stack? </strong></p>
<p><strong>TV:</strong> Point solutions will have a tough time and you will see a consolidation of point solutions going into an ad tech stack. I think you're going to see the ad tech stack consolidated by media companies that have high reach and high quality.</p>
<p>But I don't predict doomsday for ad tech whatsoever. It's the exact opposite. Everyone looks at the ad tech community and says there's too many companies, there's too much fragmentation. But ad tech is the monetization layer of the internet. The model of the internet is ad-supported today. You're seeing subscription-based services like of course, Netflix being the most successful, you're seeing subscription-based services have success, but the entire internet is funded by the ad tech community.</p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/50c622b66bb3f7fe01000004-1118-630/screen%20shot%202012-12-10%20at%2012.52.46%20pm.png" alt="Tim Armstrong" data-mce-source="Business Insider Video">I think what you're faced with today is the lack of M&amp;A that's really happened in the ad tech [market] — of course Tim Armstrong at AOL was very acquisitive, we built our business under acquisition which is now being consolidated under Time Inc. — but I think what you're going to see is point solutions integrating into an ad tech stack, then a complete ad tech stack going into media companies to be able to marry these things together.</p>
<p>That's the advantage that Google and Facebook have on the entire industry. They're not a point solution, they are everything from start to finish. I think the lack of M&amp;A we've seen today is because of traditional media companies figuring out how they participate in the transformation to digital and really thinking about what assets they need.</p>
<p>I think M&amp;A is going to explode in the coming years, especially within the ad tech community. You've got a whole bunch of companies that are generating billions of dollars in advertising through traditional channels. As that transitions to digital, they're going to need the technical infrastructure, the expertise of the people, and the know-how of data management and that's going to lead to a ton of entrepreneurs in ad tech getting exits and they're going to be great prices and it's going to continue this monetization layer on the internet of ad-supported.</p>
<p>I think when the media companies get a better recognition of what assets they need — and it's not that they're not smart, they're just being prudent in the shift from traditional to digital about what the assets are. Even in the ad tech community, people are confused on what's going to win.</p>
<p>I think it's first-party data and premium content, but I think for the media companies, once they identify it, a whole host of buyers that are not considered ad tech today are going to enter the market. These are TV companies, radio companies, magazines, anyone who has hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in traditional advertising is a buyer of ad tech.</p>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5641cf09bd86ef10008c8836-840-544/screen%20shot%202015-11-10%20at%2011.02.25%20am.png" alt="ad tech stocks q3" data-mce-source="LUMA Partners"></p>
<p>So I'm hugely bullish on ad tech M&amp;A ... to me this doomsday scenario of ad tech, because the stock market is temporarily devaluing these companies is absolutely ridiculous. The internet doesn't exist without the ad tech community and the issue I think from an investor perspective is understanding the unique value that companies bring to the table. And when they can't understand it, they simply don't buy the stock and stay away, and we're seeing that reflected in the prices today. It's a lack of understanding, not the lack of importance of the community.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-ceo-tim-vanderhook-interview-2015-9" >Myspace has undergone a 'surprising renaissance' and now it's going after teens</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-owner-viant-ceo-tim-vanderhook-on-sale-to-time-inc-2016-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-are-human-breasts-big-2018-2">The science of why human breasts are so big</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/time-inc-acquires-myspace-viant-2016-2Myspace was just acquired by 94-year-old magazine company Time (TIME)http://www.businessinsider.com/time-inc-acquires-myspace-viant-2016-2
Thu, 11 Feb 2016 09:13:47 -0500Lara O'Reilly
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/530bb2ed6bb3f735475fdb4a-600-450/myspace-tom-1.jpg" alt="myspace tom" data-mce-source="MySpace" /></p><p>Time Inc., the owner of Time, Fortune, and People magazines, has acquired Viant, the parent company of Myspace.</p>
<p>Joe Ripp, chairman and CEO of Time Inc., described the acquisition as "game changing" <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160211005412/en/Time-Acquire-Assets-Viant-Data-Driven-Leader-People-Based">in a press release</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.</p>
<p>For Time Inc., this acquisition is all about the data. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Ad network Specific Media, another Viant-owned company, scooped up Myspace for $35 million in 2011. Its previous owner before that was News Corp, which bought Myspace for $580 million back in 2005.</p>
<p>In buying Myspace, Viant amassed a database of more than&nbsp;1 billion registered users. While not all of those people may have kept the same email address from their Myspace days, it still has an enviable treasure trove&nbsp;of first-party data.</p>
<p>First-party data is considered the holy grail when it comes to advertising online because it means marketers know they are serving ads to the actual consumer they want to be targeting, rather than making probabilistic bets based on browsing behavior.</p>
<p>It's that registration data that led to Viant launching its Advertising Cloud in 2014, which contains an "identity-management platform." This platform allows marketers to connect their own databases with Viant's data and it also contains a demand-side ad platform, an ad server, and a data-analytics platform.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-ceo-tim-vanderhook-interview-2015-9">Tim Vanderhook, Viant CEO, told Business Insider last year</a> that the company's revenue was in the "hundreds of millions," having grown 20% year-on-year.</p>
<h2>What Time plans to do with Viant (and Myspace)</h2>
<p>In the press release, Time says the acquisition will help the company: "Targeting ad delivery to the optimal audiences; linking devices back to real people; converting ad spending to actual sales and closing the ROI loop."</p>
<p>Viant gives Time an immediate leg-up&nbsp;compared to its competitors when it comes to ad tech and provides a first-party data set that, in Time's own words, "rivals industry leaders Facebook and Google."</p>
<p>What it plans to do with Myspace, <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2015/01/14/myspace-still-reaches-50-million-people-each-month/">which still attracts tens of millions of visitors each month </a>and counts pop star Justin Timberlake among its investors, remains to be seen.</p>
<p>Time Inc. reported its quarterly earnings on Thursday. Revenue fell 2% year-on-year to $877 million in the three months to December 31.</p>
<p>Net income fell to $17 million, down from $145 million in the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, digital-advertising revenue grew 17% to $102 million.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-ceo-tim-vanderhook-interview-2015-9" >Myspace has undergone a 'surprising renaissance' and now it's going after teens</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/time-inc-acquires-myspace-viant-2016-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-google-information-nsa-iphone-android-data-personal-2016-2">Columbia law professor argues that 'privacy has been privatized'</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/most-impressive-brand-comebacks-2015-10The 13 most impressive brand comebacks of all timehttp://www.businessinsider.com/most-impressive-brand-comebacks-2015-10
Thu, 29 Oct 2015 17:10:00 -0400Marina Nazario
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/563273f59dd7cc16008c5cee-874-655/screen shot 2015-10-29 at 2.13.28 pm.png" alt="Birkenstock" data-mce-source="Birkenstock Facebook" /></p><p>Every once in a while, a popular brand falls off the map.</p>
<p>During that time they have two choices: accept defeat or make a comeback plan.</p>
<p>In the chance the brand chooses to make a comeback, a huge rebranding effort comes into play.</p>
<p><span>Gathered from surveys by <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/brands-that-came-back-from-scandal/robert-wabash?utm_expid=16418821-157.KzX0YuO8RXOC1yjYBgr_2A.0&amp;utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ranker.com%2Ftags%2Fbrands%3Fref%3Dmainnav">Ranker.com</a> these&nbsp;are brands defied the odds.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brands-that-change-your-life-2015-10" >24 brands that improve the quality of everyday life</a></strong></p>
<h3>13. Members Only</h3>
<img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/56326091bd86effb5b8baa61-400-300/13-members-only.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>This popular clothing brand in the '80s had the advertising tagline: "When you put it on, something happens." But the brand slowly became dismissed in the fashion world because of its dated look. Lucky for them, retro is in. The brand relaunched in 2004 with a men's and women's line and has been seen being worn by celebrities such as<span> </span>Anne Hathaway, David Hasselhoff,&nbsp;Mariah Carey, Rihanna, and&nbsp;Miley Cyrus.&nbsp;</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>12. Myspace</h3>
<img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/54b7a4f2dd08958e298b468b-400-300/12-myspace.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>From 2005 until 2008, Myspace was the largest social networking site in the world. Then in 2008, Facebook emerged&nbsp;and Myspace was forgotten. But now, Myspace is capitalizing on its music platform. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-ceo-tim-vanderhook-interview-2015-9">Backed by Justin Timberlake</a>, the site underwent a major redesign and is now a popular place for artists and musicians to post their work, while users can browse and search featured content.&nbsp;</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>11. Birkenstock</h3>
<img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/563261ec9dd7cc02308ba73e-400-300/11-birkenstock.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>These&nbsp;<span>distinctive cork-soled sandals</span>&nbsp;noticed a surge of popularity on the '90's, but as trends go, they became increasingly unaccepted in American culture. Thanks, yet again, to retro style <a href="http://www.vogue.com/867490/pretty-ugly-why-vogue-girls-have-fallen-for-the-birkenstock/">taking the runways</a>, the two-strap sandal trend is back and Birkenstock is at the top of the pack.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p></p>
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-impressive-brand-comebacks-2015-10#/#12-keds-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-tom-instagram-photos-2015-9The multimillionaire founder of MySpace now travels the world taking jaw-dropping photographshttp://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-tom-instagram-photos-2015-9
Mon, 21 Sep 2015 05:30:00 -0400Rob Price
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/55fff306bd86ef20008bbb5b-1200-900/tom-anderson-myspace-iceland-glacier-hiking-instagram.jpg" alt="tom anderson myspace iceland glacier hiking instagram 2" data-mce-source="Tom Anderson"></p><p>Remember Tom Anderson?</p>
<p>The founder of MySpace was assigned as the first friend of everyone who joined the social network — connecting him to hundreds of millions of people around the globe.</p>
<p>The glory days of MySpace are now long since gone, and (along with cofounder Chris DeWolfe) Tom sold his stake in the social network to News Corp. for $580 million (£372 million) back in 2005.</p>
<p>But he has kept himself busy.</p>
<p>Buoyed by his massive payday, "MySpace Tom" today says he's retired and spends his days traveling the world, taking some truly astonishing photographs.</p><h3>His travels have taken him around the world, from the Philippines ...</h3>
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<p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a href="https://instagram.com/p/gZklghgSZL/" target="_top">Manila, Philippines from the sky. That's the Pasig River and skyscrapers down below!</a></p>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A photo posted by Tom Anderson (@myspacetom) on Nov 6, 2013 at 8:12pm PST</p>
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<br/><br/><h3>... to Venice ...</h3>
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<p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a href="https://instagram.com/p/N83g0_ASUD/" target="_top">I don't often take photos with an iPad, but when I do I'm usually in Venice</a></p>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A photo posted by Tom Anderson (@myspacetom) on Aug 5, 2012 at 8:14am PDT</p>
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<br/><br/><h3>... and Iceland ... </h3>
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<p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a href="https://instagram.com/p/xDx8uKAScA/" target="_top">Christmas in Iceland :-) I was stunned to see how blue the ice can be here.</a></p>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A photo posted by Tom Anderson (@myspacetom) on Dec 25, 2014 at 9:59pm PST</p>
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<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-tom-instagram-photos-2015-9#-and-burma-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-ceo-tim-vanderhook-interview-2015-9MySpace has undergone a 'surprising renaissance' and now it's going after teenshttp://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-ceo-tim-vanderhook-interview-2015-9
Tue, 15 Sep 2015 04:30:00 -0400Lara O'Reilly
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/55ed44029dd7cc15008b89a1-930-697/programatic-8343.jpg" alt="Tim Vanderhook" data-mce-source="Michael Seto/Business Insider" /></p><p>With Facebook now <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-announces-1-billion-daily-users-2015-8">reaching more than 1 billion users in a single day</a>, many people have resigned MySpace&nbsp;&mdash; which over a decade ago made online social networking mainstream&nbsp;&mdash; to the history books.</p>
<p>And while the website is nowhere near as popular as it once was, its new owner is still managing to squeeze significant revenue from MySpace thanks to&nbsp;its huge database of registered users.</p>
<p>Internet advertising company Specific Media scooped up MySpace for $35 million in 2011. The acquisition came six&nbsp;years after News Corp bought MySpace for $580 million, with the company's executive chairman <a href="https://gigaom.com/2014/10/29/rupert-murdoch-on-myspace-we-just-messed-it-up/">Rupert Murdoch admitting last year that "we just messed it up" and made "a very expensive mistake."</a></p>
<p>But for Specific Media, which now operates under parent company&nbsp;Viant, MySpace has turned into somewhat of a bargain. And it&nbsp;looks as though it has become the bedrock for a new consumer-focused online media property currently in the works that appears to be going after the teenagers who weren't old enough to join the site the first time around.</p>
<p>Tim Vanderhook founded Specific Media with his two older brothers in 1999 when he was 19-years-old, brokering ad space for websites. It grew to become one the biggest online ad networks and raised more than $130 million in funding.</p>
<p>Buying MySpace transformed Specific Media from a company that just brokered ads, into a media company in its own right with ad space of its own to sell.</p>
<p>But most importantly, the acquisition gave it access to more than 1 billion registered users. Not all may have kept the same email address from their MySpace days, but the number of people on file is still significant enough to provide value. When it comes to online advertising, first-party data is considered the holy grail. It means you can confirm you are targeting the actual consumer you aim to be targeting, rather than making probabilistic bets based on cookies and browsing behavior. It's part of the reason why Facebook and Google dominate the online advertising space: they have the all-important registration data.</p>
<p>Speaking to Business Insider, Vanderhook insists buying MySpace wasn't just about buying a database.</p>
<p>"I think MySpace was an opportunity I believed in; that we could revive MySpace ... acquiring MySpace was about MySpace itself, and making it competitive in today's world," Vanderhook said.</p>
<h2>The relaunch</h2>
<p>Justin Timberlake also took an ownership stake in MySpace as part of the purchase from News Corp. As "creative director" (a role he doesn't hold today, as he is no longer involved at an operational level,) the singer led MySpace's relaunch.</p>
<p>The site shifted its focus from user-generated content to music, heeding the knowledge that many artists had launched their careers on the platform, like indie band Arctic Monkeys. The relaunch included a sleek new design, parties, and a $20 million marketing campaign that <a href="http://www.marketingweek.com/2013/06/14/myspace-returns-with-star-studied-tv-ad/">included a star-studded TV ad</a>.</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5061e361ecad043049000001-922-713/new myspace justin timberlake.jpg" alt="myspace justin timberlake" data-mce-source="Myspace screencap" data-link="https://new.myspace.com/play" /></p>
<p>But since then, MySpace has been quiet on the marketing front. Vanderhook says the company shifted from a traditional marketing approach to a data-driven strategy, driven by email. MySpace emails its users when an artist they might like posts new content, reminding them to go back and re-engage with the site.</p>
<p>"Email is the gift that keeps giving on the internet. It was written off, but it's a phenomenal way to reach consumers. Email is the main identity for consumers online for registration. And it works across devices," Vanderhook said.</p>
<p>And, <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2015/01/14/myspace-still-reaches-50-million-people-each-month/">as Vanderhook has spoken about before</a>, the "Throwback Thursday" meme has also helped reinvigorate MySpace, as people check back on their accounts for old photos to share.</p>
<p>Vanderhook acknowledges that Facebook has now started sharing "memories" with its users, reminding them of content they posted on that day in previous years.</p>
<p>But MySpace has an edge: "People get a kick out of photos from five years, eight years, 10 years ago," Vanderhook said</p>
<p>Facebook is indisputably the king of social networking, but MySpace remains a hugely popular site with traffic numbers many&nbsp;online publishers would be proud of. Vanderhook said the relaunch has "far exceeded expectations."</p>
<p>In March, measurement firm <a href="http://qz.com/372725/the-digital-media-comeback-story-of-last-year-myspace/">comScore reported that between December 2013 and December 2014, MySpace had grown traffic in the US by 469%</a>, making it a bigger property than Snapchat and Vice.&nbsp;ComScore said the "surprising renaissance" was thanks to MySpace's pivot to music and video content.</p>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/55ed4ef49dd7cc11008b8929-1350-640/screenshot 2015-09-07 at 09.46.12.png" alt="myspace website" data-mce-source="MySpace" /></p>
<p>It's this active user base, combined with the historic registration data that has helped turn MySpace into a serious money maker for Viant.</p>
<p>The company launched its Advertising Cloud last year, which contains an "identity management platform," allowing marketers to connect their own databases with Viant's data. It also offer a demand-side at platform and ad server and a data analytics platform.</p>
<p>Vanderhook says the Advertising Cloud is different from others on the market offered by companies including Adobe, Oracle, and Salesforce, because it claims to be the only platform that can link whether a person that saw an ad went on to buy an item in a physical store. Other platforms, he says, only offer information about whether ads drove ecommerce sales, but online stores make up just 10% of retail transactions.</p>
<p>The reason Viant can offer this is that all-important MySpace registration data, coupled with other sources of data such as Experian and NCS loyalty card data.</p>
<p><img class="float_left" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/55ed4fa69dd7cc14008b892b-300-300" alt="tim vanderhook" data-mce-source="Viant" />Vanderhook won't share exact&nbsp;numbers, but says Viant's&nbsp;revenue (which includes sales from MySpace, the Specific Media network, and the Viant Advertising Cloud)&nbsp;in the "hundreds of millions," having grown 20% year on year. In 2011, MySpace was on track to generate around $109 million in revenue, <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/12/exclusive-the-bleak-financial-numbers-from-the-myspace-sale-pitch-book/">according to&nbsp;TechCrunch.</a></p>
<p>The acceleration in growth, boosted by MySpace data, is part of the reason Viant is launching&nbsp;its Advertising Cloud to the UK today, one year ahead of schedule. Vanderhook says the UK market is "one of the most interesting in the world," noting that the country became the first place where <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/mar/27/half-ad-spend-digital-media">budgets for digital advertising are already greater than those for TV.</a></p>
<p>Aside from the UK launch, Vanderhook's other big task is trying to expand&nbsp;its bank of users. While the MySpace pool of data is vast, it's missing an important demographic: younger users who weren't on the site first time around.</p>
<p>"The set of users we don't have today is youth: 15, 16, 17-year-olds," Vanderhook said.</p>
<p>Vanderhook&nbsp;then hinted at how he might go about attracting them. He said he&nbsp;couldn't talk about it, but did reveal that&nbsp;Viant is "working hard" on building out new consumer products, referencing how Facebook has gone&nbsp;on to create and acquire other consumer-facing brands that do slightly different things: like Instagram, WhatsApp, Paper, Messenger. MySpace for teens is on its way.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/what-snapchat-is-like-as-an-ad-sales-organization-2015-7?r=US&IR=T" >Here's what people are saying about what it's like to work with Snapchat right now</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-ceo-tim-vanderhook-interview-2015-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/skin-a-watermelon-party-trick-how-to-2015-9">We tried that viral 'skin a watermelon' party trick</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/this-guy-created-one-of-the-most-famous-memes-heres-why-hes-kinda-pissed-off-2015-7This guy created the frog meme that's all over the internet — here’s why he’s ‘kinda pissed off'http://www.businessinsider.com/this-guy-created-one-of-the-most-famous-memes-heres-why-hes-kinda-pissed-off-2015-7
Thu, 30 Jul 2015 16:22:59 -0400Will Haskell
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/55ba87b8dd0895c81c8b4581-1106-1012/screen%20shot%202015-07-30%20at%202.31.57%20pm.png" alt="Pepe the Frog" data-mce-source="Fran Zi/YouTube.com"></p><p>You might think that for someone whose creation turned into one of the most popular memes online, the most frustrating part would be the complete lack of payment that comes with that type of fame.</p>
<p>But for the artist who created the famous Pepe the Frog meme, it's more complicated than that. </p>
<p>You may not know Pepe the Frog by name, but you've definitely seen him before. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The viral meme is practically everywhere, from the </span><a href="https://instagram.com/p/5uan1kq8p-/?taken-by=fuckjerry">@f--kjerry Instagram account</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to </span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/pepethefrog/">a subreddit devoted</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> entirely to the cartoon amphibian.</span></p>
<p>Matt Furie created Pepe in 2005 and first posted him to MySpace, <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/feels-good-man-728">according to Vice's Sean Collins</a><span>. He also included Pepe in a comic called Boy's Club.</span></p>
<p><span>Pepe became popular on 4chan first, <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/feels-good-man-728">according to Vice</a>. Now, he can be seen on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and elsewhere. Furie has completely lost control of Pepe — and he's definitely not profiting from all of the reinterpretations of his character.</span></p>
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<p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://instagram.com/p/2bB3HjHNIq/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">Peperiel #pepe #pepethefrog #peperiel</a>
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<time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2015-05-08T13:18:04+00:00">May 8, 2015 at 6:18am PDT</time></p>
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<p class="embed-spacer">Surprisingly, though, <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/feels-good-man-728">in his interview with Vice</a>, Furie said the lack of royalty payments for the frog he created isn't what bothers him about Pepe's fame.</p>
<h3><strong>Instead, Furie's not a fan of two things: the outfit his frog's been given and another meme, Feels Guy, that people often stick Pepe with.</strong></h3>
<p>"H<span>e's got, randomly, a blue shirt and brown lips, and t</span>hat's his accepted outfit now," Furie lamented to<a href="http://www.vice.com/read/feels-good-man-728"> Vice</a>. In the original cartoon, Pepe was drawn in black and white. </p>
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<p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://instagram.com/p/4Anb03HNFP/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">Pepe Clean #pepe #pepethefrog #mrclean #pepeclean</a>
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<time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2015-06-17T00:09:41+00:00">Jun 16, 2015 at 5:09pm PDT</time></p>
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<p class="embed-spacer">Furie's also irked that his frog is often paired with an unrelated character named "Feels Guy."</p>
<p>Feels Guy is usually used to express feelings of melancholy, <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wojak-feels-guy">according to KnowYourMeme.com</a>, and his unofficial tagline is "I Know That Feel Bro." He often appears next to Pepe in memes.</p>
<p><span>Furie doesn't know why people have turned Pepe and Feels Guy into best buds, but thinks it might have to do with some of his comics. Furie liked to draw Pepe peeing with his pants pulled down to his ankles. He'd explain to the other characters that doing so </span><a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/feels-good-man">"feels good, man."</a></p>
<p><span>"Why are they linked together? Is it because he's called the Feels Guy and the frog is the Feels Good Frog?" Furie asked <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/feels-good-man-728">Vice</a>. "The kids know what it is, but I don't."</span></p>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LoveWins?src=hash">#LoveWins</a> does this mean pepe and feels guy can get married now? <a href="http://t.co/V4A4WLkopl">pic.twitter.com/V4A4WLkopl</a> </p>— sabrina (@kahunasab) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/614468310957207552">June 26, 2015</a>
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halsey we could be pepe nd feels guy if ya wanted <a href="http://t.co/bMPTliltrg">pic.twitter.com/bMPTliltrg</a> </p>— vee !! (@flipsidemgcs) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/605685769663971328">June 2, 2015</a>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChromMarries?src=hash">#ChromMarries</a> pepe feels guy <a href="http://t.co/J7btEqDOrl">pic.twitter.com/J7btEqDOrl</a> </p>— Chrom marries: (@chrommarrieswho) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/598138358989225984">May 12, 2015</a>
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<p>Apart from those two gripes, Furie doesn't mind that Pepe has developed a following that's beyond his control.</p>
<p><span>"I think it's cool," Furie told Vice. "In fact, I'm getting kind of inspired by all the weird interpretations of it."</span></p>
<p> </p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gif-and-meme-reactions-to-scalias-dissent-on-gay-marriage-2015-6" >Scalia is getting roasted on social media with hilarious memes after his dissent on the gay marriage ruling</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/this-guy-created-one-of-the-most-famous-memes-heres-why-hes-kinda-pissed-off-2015-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-overly-attached-girlfriend-explains-what-internet-stardom-is-like-2013-3">The Overly-Attached Girlfriend Explains What It's Like Being A Wildly Popular Internet Meme</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/former-myspace-ceo-on-his-new-venture-2015-7The mistakes this MySpace CEO says he's not repeating at his new startuphttp://www.businessinsider.com/former-myspace-ceo-on-his-new-venture-2015-7
Fri, 24 Jul 2015 16:52:01 -0400Jonathan Fisher
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/55b28dd6371d2278018b96b4-1920-2880/sgn founders.jpg" alt="SGN Founders" data-mce-source="SGN" data-mce-caption="The founders of Social Gaming Network aren't dwelling on the past this time around" /></p><p>The best successes often arise&nbsp;from failures.&nbsp;Chris DeWolfe, the former CEO of MySpace, is applying the lessons he learned at the once red-hot social networking company to a&nbsp;new venture with big ambitions.</p>
<p>DeWolfe's latest act is a mobile gaming company called SGN<span>&nbsp;that he founded in 2010 along with&nbsp;<span>fellow MySpace alum Aber Whitcomb (former MySpace CTO)</span><span>&nbsp;and</span><span>&nbsp;Josh Yguado (Former Fox executive who worked on the MySpace/Fox transaction).&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>The company has produced a number of hit games such as&nbsp;<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.sgn.cookiejam.gp&amp;hl=en">Cookie Jam</a><span>, </span><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sgn.pandapop.gp&amp;hl=en">Panda Pop</a><span>, and </span><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.sgn.juicejam.gp&amp;hl=en">Juice Jam</a>, and DeWolfe is confident that SGN is destined to become a top 5 mobile gaming company.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>This week SGN announced it has scooped up $130 million in funding from&nbsp;<span>NetMarble, one of the largest Asian gaming companies.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span>For DeWolfe, the investment in his company is a chance to gain ground on top companies like Supercell, Zynga, and Machine Zone, whose top games include Clash of Clans, Words with Friends, and Game of War.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p>To accomplish its mission, the founders of SGN are making sure not to repeat the same mistakes they made at MySpace, which was once the top social network before being made irrelevant by Facebook.</p>
<p>For starters, DeWolfe says that SGN is much smarter in its&nbsp;hiring.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"We are hiring the right people for the right positions and trying to do more with less," he told Business Insider in an interview.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">During the MySpace days we got up to about 1,500 to 1,600 employees and when we had an idea we'd say, 'Ok, go hire 20 people and we're going to have the next great email service,' or 'OK, you hire 20 people and we're going to have the next best Craigslist because we have 130 million MAU (monthly active users) on our platform and we should be able to do whatever we want.' So we were a mile wide and an inch deep. Now, I think we're super deep and focused. We're doing a lot with 200 people. That's something that we think about and talk about every day.</p>
<p>DeWolfe and his team also have access to a much wider scope of data than they did back in the MySpace days. He says:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">We do A/B tests versus those days where there was a lot of guessing and a lot of submitting requests to a database administration team of 25 people and waiting for the query to come back and not knowing if it was right or correct or not. The decisions become much more data-driven at a certain point, which is fun. I could never have imagined that data was fun 10 years ago but... it's fun now.</p>
<p>Considering all of the successes and failures the team has dealt with throughout the years, is there anything positive they have taken from the MySpace experience? DeWolfe leans back in his chair and smiles: "What's similar is that we're very aggressive and want to win. That's something that a lot of people don't do. We'll take measured risks more than the average company. "</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/former-myspace-ceo-explains-why-facebook-was-able-to-dominate-social-media-despite-coming-second-2015-5" >Former MySpace CEO explains why Facebook was able to dominate social media despite coming second</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/former-myspace-ceo-on-his-new-venture-2015-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/waterfall-climbing-fish-goby-evolution-hawaii-2015-5">Scientists are astonished by these Goby fish that can climb 300-foot waterfalls</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/kim-kardashians-old-myspace-2015-6Kim Kardashian's MySpace page from 2006 has been unearthedhttp://www.businessinsider.com/kim-kardashians-old-myspace-2015-6
Mon, 15 Jun 2015 07:08:00 -0400Caroline Moss
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/557eb0a46da811f603322ae4-1168-876/kim-kardashian-76.jpg" border="0" alt="Kim Kardashian"></p><p>Kim Kardashian West may be referred to as "The Queen" by her biggest fans, but once upon a time she was merely a princess.</p>
<p>At least, that's how she referred to herself on her MySpace page in 2006.</p>
<p>Princess Kimberly's early-aughts social-media presence has been <a href="http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/kim-kardashian-was-once-known-as-princess-kimberly-on-her-myspace-2015106">unearthed by both US Weekly</a> and <a href="http://mic.com/articles/120575/here-s-kim-kardashian-s-9-year-old-myspace-page-it-s-even-funnier-than-you-think">Mic</a> — and there's a lot to unpack.</p>
<p>MySpace, for those who need a refresher, was the popular social network of the millennium before Facebook came along. You could upload photos, curate a top eight of your favorite friends, and even switch up the HTML to personalize your page with your favorite font (Kardashian West chose a pink Comic Sans MS).</p>
<p>Below is Princess Kimberley's top eight. <a href="http://mic.com/articles/120575/here-s-kim-kardashian-s-9-year-old-myspace-page-it-s-even-funnier-than-you-think">Mic's Sophie Kleeman notes that it includes</a> "xex-boyfriend Ray J, with whom she starred in her now legendary 2003 sex tape. You'll also find sis Kourtney, brother Rob, and stepbrother Brody Jenner."</p>
<p>She also says she wants to meet God.</p>
<p>At the time, Kardashian West had 856 friends — a far cry from her millions of fans on Facebook and Twitter — so this page must be from before she became a massive reality star.</p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/557eaec06da811bc6d322ae2-800-1201/ld4jstnealqj14hkydpj6dktjxnbkpnrarxplctfynqdblqdj3rwp9fir0nsgw3o.jpg" border="0" alt="Kim Kardashian MySpace"></p>
<p>Here are some other photos from the MySpace page, most of which came from after she soared to fame with "Keeping Up With The Kardashians."</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/557eafb16bb3f7dc5899cdce-760-575/i30pmfjjfwnh9qd20obzuiht4pukzrksbcgdq1yashtpc5iqd1sh3wxqf4v9vxa0.png" border="0" alt="Kim Kardashian MySpace"></p>
<p>The Comic Sans MS font remains!</p>
<p>She wrote an intense diatribe about a 2007 rehearsal for "Dancing with the Stars" and posted it to her MySpace for all to read.</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/557eb03d6bb3f7516599cdcf-900-630/zwy1otzhmmjhyimvce1nazhlz1frwnvywevhcdnxwmhntju2awd3ps8zeda6otazedyzmc85mdb4njmwl2zpbhrlcnm6cxvhbgl0esg3mckvahr0cdovl3mzlmftyxpvbmf3cy5jb20vcg9sawn5bwljlwltywdlcy9wnzzodhv5dnztmhvhznpyawc2enhzanj1dnljbjr1c204bgd3cmxnbtluog8wa3bhzwr1dmhqzdrjz3gyc3jolm.jpg" border="0" alt="Kim Kardashian MySpace"></p>
<p>Over the years, Mic points out, Kardashian West posted less and less on her MySpace, but she was still more active than most celebrities.</p>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/557eb07fecad041907a257d1-900-530/njjjndjintllocmvb2thmus4rlb4ef9wn3ney2plr2toa0sxqtc0ps8ymth4mzoxmte4eduzmy85mdb4ntmwl2zpbhrlcnm6cxvhbgl0esg3mckvahr0cdovl3mzlmftyxpvbmf3cy5jb20vcg9sawn5bwljlwltywdlcy9ozxfhogtmdgu1ehg3bnrubnptynh2bxbobhdsnxpmmtvmc2e5zxi0m2luynf2odf2ejzvc3l4nhd5zgfmc3.png" border="0" alt="Kim Kardashian West MySpace"></p>
<p>Check out <a href="http://mic.com/articles/120575/here-s-kim-kardashian-s-9-year-old-myspace-page-it-s-even-funnier-than-you-think">all the photos of Kardashian West's old MySpace profile from Mic</a>.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kim-kardashians-old-myspace-2015-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jen-selter-belfies-instagram-background-kim-kardashian-butt-selfie-2015-2">Forget Kim Kardashian — the 'butt selfie' queen of Instagram is a 21-year-old from Long Island</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/former-myspace-ceo-and-la-tech-guru-explains-facebooks-brilliant-strategy-to-avoid-disruption-2015-5Former MySpace CEO and LA tech guru explains Facebook’s brilliant strategy to avoid disruptionhttp://www.businessinsider.com/former-myspace-ceo-and-la-tech-guru-explains-facebooks-brilliant-strategy-to-avoid-disruption-2015-5
Sun, 10 May 2015 06:30:00 -0400Harrison Jacobs
<p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/554d2172eab8ea94688e5793-1200-924/science-mike-jones-5.jpg" border="0" alt="science mike jones">Science Inc CEO Mike Jones knows something about disruption. In the late 2000s, he was tasked with righting the ship at MySpace, even as the rest of the world fell in love with Facebook.</span></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Now on the outside, Jones has a unique perspective on the challenges facing Facebook. According to Jones, Zuckerberg and company are succeeding due to one crucial strategy.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>“What they’ve realized is that Facebook the website and Facebook the company are distinctively different things,” Jones told Business Insider. “They have realized that if Facebook the company is going to connect the world, they are going to have to do it in a lot of different ways that may or may not be on Facebook.com.”</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">According to Jones, Facebook has accepted that new social media platforms are going to disrupt their business model and drive traffic away from the site.</p>
<p dir="ltr">To protect against that, they’ve acquired many of those new platforms. In 2012, Facebook <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-buys-instagram-2012-4">purchased budding photo-sharing platform Instagram</a> for $1 billion. Today, it is&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/industry-people-are-whispering-that-kevin-systrom-blew-it-selling-instagram-for-1-billion-2013-11">worth five or 10 times that</a>&nbsp;amount. Last year, the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-facebooks-whatsapp-acquisition-now-has-price-tag-of-22-billion-2014-10">company purchased WhatsApp for $22 billion</a>. The app has grown <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/whatsapp-passes-800-million-monthly-active-users-2015-4">to over 800 million active users</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Last August, Facebook <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-is-facebook-messenger-a-separate-app-2014-11">separated its messaging product from its core Facebook app</a> and even offered a separate site for messaging. It’s another indication, says Jones, of how Facebook is focused on strengthening the company, not necessarily Facebook.com.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“It’s a strategic move,” says Jones. “Messaging has a long-term utility play. You may not enjoy the entertainment content that you consume through Facebook.com, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want the utility of messaging people.”</span></p>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/554d20df69bedd1837073782-1200-924/mark-zuckerberg-421.jpg" border="0" alt="Mark Zuckerberg"></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Products that rely primarily on utility to drive engagement stay in fashion far longer than those that rely on entertainment, says Jones. He should know. An overreliance on entertainment content is what killed MySpace. Relying on utility may not be a sexy strategy, but, according to Jones, it is going to keep Facebook relevant for a long time.</span></span></p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-1dee1f33-3542-aa2e-97f2-66125ef1898a"><span>“You are going to have a long-term relationship with your water company, but you will likely have a short-term relationship with your favorite restaurant,” says Jones.</span></span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/former-myspace-ceo-and-la-tech-guru-explains-facebooks-brilliant-strategy-to-avoid-disruption-2015-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-work-perks-employee-2015-4">REVEALED: Here are all the incredible perks for Facebook employees</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/former-myspace-ceo-explains-why-facebook-was-able-to-dominate-social-media-despite-coming-second-2015-5Former MySpace CEO explains why Facebook was able to dominate social media despite coming secondhttp://www.businessinsider.com/former-myspace-ceo-explains-why-facebook-was-able-to-dominate-social-media-despite-coming-second-2015-5
Sat, 09 May 2015 06:13:00 -0400Harrison Jacobs
<p dir="ltr"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/554d11f96bb3f7f410e934ec-1200-924/science-mike-jones-2.jpg" border="0" alt="science mike jones"></p><p>Mike Jones, the former head of MySpace and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mike-jones-science-startup-studio-2015-2">current CEO of LA tech studio Science Inc</a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mike-jones-science-startup-studio-2015-2">.</a>,&nbsp;has been in the tech and social media scene since the beginning.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>We asked the veteran tech guru to look back and answer a big historical question: Why was Facebook able to dominate social media despite coming after the wildly successful MySpace?</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>According to him, it was simple.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“The real problem was that the world had been trained by MySpace that social networking was interesting, but the actual product had been perfected by Facebook,” Jones told Business Insider.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Facebook’s killer feature was that it replicated the real world by forcing people to use their real names, whereas MySpace users used <span>pseudonymous&nbsp;</span>handles, says Jones. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>When MySpace started, the concept of giving out your real name, your identity, or photos of yourself to a website were all considered “risky behaviors.” <span>MySpace began the process of convincing people to move past that fear. Facebook ended that discussion.</span><br></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/554d124decad048a1e4773e8-800-602/facebookmyspace2010-1.jpg" border="0" alt="facebookmyspace2010" style="color: #000000;"></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Once people had become accustomed to that idea though, says Jones, people realized that the software needed to do social media correctly was Facebook, not MySpace.</span></p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-1dee1f33-3508-10cc-1a4e-cce3c122c679"><span>“The training of the world to use social networking led to the growth of Facebook, which led to the demise of MySpace,” says Jones.</span></span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/former-myspace-ceo-explains-why-facebook-was-able-to-dominate-social-media-despite-coming-second-2015-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/make-things-super-private-facebook-2015-4">How to prevent people from stalking you on Facebook</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/take-a-tour-of-former-myspace-ceo-and-tech-incubator-mike-jones-malibu-mansion-2015-5Take a tour of former Myspace CEO and tech incubator Mike Jones' Malibu mansionhttp://www.businessinsider.com/take-a-tour-of-former-myspace-ceo-and-tech-incubator-mike-jones-malibu-mansion-2015-5
Fri, 08 May 2015 16:01:41 -0400Harrison Jacobs
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/554a442a6da811a11f1fb98e-1200-924/mikejoneshouseselects-1-of-1-3.jpg" border="0" alt="MikeJonesHouseSelects (1 of 1)">Tech entrepreneur and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mike-jones-science-startup-studio-2015-2">CEO of startup studio Science Inc.</a> Mike Jones may have lived in Los Angeles for nearly 20 years, but he still values his Oregon upbringing.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">When he and his wife were looking for a place to raise their children, they wanted a property where they could teach their children the value of nature and provide ample space for play. That’s not exactly easy to find in the confines of Los Angeles County.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">They eventually found a stunning 6,000 square foot, five-bedroom house on three acres of property in Malibu, California, bordered by state parks on one side and a gorgeous ocean view below.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Jones invited us over to check out the property.</span></p><h3>Mike Jones and his wife, psychologist Dr. Jennifer Jones, live with their two kids in Malibu, off the scenic Pacific Coast Highway. To get there, you have drive up a long and snaking set of roads.</h3>
<img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5543c62decad046731c7483a-400-300/mike-jones-and-his-wife-psychologist-dr-jennifer-jones-live-with-their-two-kids-in-malibu-off-the-scenic-pacific-coast-highway-to-get-there-you-have-drive-up-a-long-and-snaking-set-of-roads.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><h3>And through a private gate. Their house is set so far into the property that you won't even see it until you make your way halfway through the "driveway."</h3>
<img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5543c62d6bb3f7b50c01cee4-400-300/and-through-a-private-gate-their-house-is-set-so-far-into-the-property-that-you-wont-even-see-it-until-you-make-your-way-halfway-through-the-driveway.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><h3>The house was built in 1958, but you wouldn't know it from the outside. It is one of the most booked houses in California for shooting commercials. The house has been featured in Verizon, Bose, and Apple commercials, among others.</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5543c714eab8ea052401cee3-400-300/the-house-was-built-in-1958-but-you-wouldnt-know-it-from-the-outside-it-is-one-of-the-most-booked-houses-in-california-for-shooting-commercials-the-house-has-been-featured-in-verizon-bose-and-apple-commercials-among-others.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/take-a-tour-of-former-myspace-ceo-and-tech-incubator-mike-jones-malibu-mansion-2015-5#the-house-is-beautiful-and-airy-we-were-met-by-rumble-the-jones-doberman-on-our-way-in-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-uses-old-photos-to-get-you-back-2014-6Myspace Is Trying To Lure You Back With Your Humiliating Old Photoshttp://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-uses-old-photos-to-get-you-back-2014-6
Tue, 03 Jun 2014 09:59:47 -0400Maya Kosoff
<p>You probably haven't thought about <a href="https://myspace.com/">Myspace</a> in years, but Myspace still remembers you&mdash;and it's got the pictures to prove it.</p>
<p>The social media site is emailing users photos from their long-abandoned profiles in an effort to win back old users, reports <a href="http://mashable.com/2014/06/01/myspace-old-photos/">Mashable</a>.</p>
<p>Myspace is sending users emails with the subject line "Your Photos are Back!" The emails contain a couple old pictures and&nbsp;<span>the line "The good, the rad and the what were you thinking..." The emails also include a link that directs the user back to their old profile. This strategy, of course, works only if the user has the same email address now as they did while using the website, popular in the early 2000s.</span></p>
<p><span><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/538dd43becad048c7772a1ee-800-/old-myspace-pics.jpg" border="0" alt="old myspace photos" width="800" /></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"Myspace has been reaching out to current and past users to re-engage them through a personalized experience,&rdquo; a spokesperson told Mashable.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>The website, co-owned by Justin Timberlake and Specific Media, has 15 billion photos in its database. However, since losing to Facebook as the social network of choice, Myspace has started focusing on music instead.</span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-wwdc-2014-6" >The most import thing Apple CEO Tim Cook said at WWDC</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/myspace-uses-old-photos-to-get-you-back-2014-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/photo-of-blood-moon-2014-4The Co-Founder Of MySpace Took The Only Photo Of The Blood Moon You Need To Seehttp://www.businessinsider.com/photo-of-blood-moon-2014-4
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 07:13:51 -0400Caroline Moss
<p><span>In a total lunar eclipse, the full moon turns a coppery red as it passes into Earth's shadow, called a "blood moon."&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>Late Monday night and early Tuesday morning, those in&nbsp;<span>North and South America had optimal seats to the sky show.</span></span></p>
<p><span>Lots of people took photos, but the best one we've seen comes from an unlikely source: <a href="https://twitter.com/myspacetom">MySpace's Tom Anderson.</a></span></p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/myspacetom"><span><span>He tweeted:</span></span></a></p>
<p><span><span>&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">&mdash; Tom Anderson (@myspacetom) <a href="https://twitter.com/myspacetom/statuses/455979051362942976">April 15, 2014</a></blockquote>
<p><span>Here's a bigger photo:</span></p>
<p><span><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/534d13c469beddea68106b10-609-610/screen shot 2014-04-15 at 7.10.39 am.png" border="0" alt="Blood Moon" /><br /></span></p>
<p><span>&nbsp;</span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/photo-of-blood-moon-2014-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>